Cities across Europe are rethinking how digital tools can improve everyday life, including making services more efficient, inclusive and responsive to people’s needs.
Across Europe, cities are facing growing and interconnected challenges, from climate risks and mobility pressures to social inclusion and service delivery. At the same time, expectations from citizens are rising, with increasing demand for faster, more accessible and more transparent public services.
Digital technologies are playing a key role in helping cities respond. However, their impact depends not only on the tools themselves, but on how they are used, including how they are integrated into everyday operations, aligned with real needs, and supported by strong governance and collaboration.
These themes were at the heart of discussions at the 2026 Eurocities Digital Forum in Sofia, an event attended by 110 city representatives from 38 cities across Europe.
Throughout the event, discussions demonstrated the links between the strength of the data systems in place in public administrations, and their ability to provide efficient digital services. Better services rely on good data, and effective data infrastructures are a necessary precondition for cities to respond more clearly and effectively to people’s everyday needs.
Improving city services through digital solutions
Cities are increasingly using digital tools to rethink the way they plan, deliver and evaluate services. As urban challenges become more complex, local governments are looking for ways to improve efficiency, respond more quickly to citizens’ needs, and make better use of available resources.
Digital solutions, from data platforms to AI-powered tools, are playing an increasing role in this shift. But their value lies in how they are applied in practice, integrated across services, and designed around real needs on the ground.
Joro Penchev, Policy and Tech Development Lead at Sofia Municipality, highlighted the potential of digital tools to support better urban outcomes. “They can help us improve life in our cities, including better planning, better delivery of services, better assessment and better collaboration,” he explained.
[Digital tools] can help us improve life in our cities, including better planning, better delivery of services, better assessment and better collaboration
At the same time, he pointed to the growing complexity of digital transformation, particularly around the use of data and AI, and the need for cities to manage these responsibly.
Bringing European policy to the local level
A strong European perspective was provided by Yordanka Chobanova, Head of the European Commission’s Representation in Bulgaria, who underlined local authorities’ key role in translating policy into practice.
“Local authorities are the ones that people understand best. European policies can be implemented only with your support and your ability to understand people’s needs,” she said.
Her message reinforced a central point: trust in digital services is built locally, through solutions that respond directly to people’s needs and expectations.
From silos to integrated services
Cities shared concrete examples of how they are using digital tools to break down silos and improve service delivery.
Ana Carneiro, CEO and Board Member of Porto Digital, presented CityFlow, a modular platform designed to connect services, teams and data across the Porto municipality.
Rather than digitising processes in isolation, the platform integrates areas such as mobility, green spaces and public services into a single operational system. By combining real-time coordination with historical data, the platform enables better planning, more efficient use of resources, and faster responses to citizens’ needs.
“We don’t want to digitalise silos. We want to connect them,” explained Carneiro.
Anni Orttenvuori-Ganter, Lead Data and Knowledge Architect for the City of Espoo, described a different approach based on targeted experimentation. Espoo is testing AI applications in areas such as language assessment and translation services, with a strong focus on inclusion and accessibility.
Digitalisation is not only about technology, it’s about inclusion, accessibility and reliability
“Digitalisation is not only about technology, it’s about inclusion, accessibility and reliability,” she said. This approach allows the city to explore innovation while ensuring that solutions remain practical, trusted and aligned with real user needs.
Involving citizens and unlocking civic innovation
A recurring theme was the importance of involving citizens not just as users, but as active contributors.
For example, the city of Sofia used its Sofia Decides platform for participatory budgeting. The initiative has seen growing engagement, with hundreds of proposals submitted and increasing citizen involvement in shaping local priorities.
Sofia Yovcheva, Junior Expert in the Projects and Digitalisation Policies Department of Sofia Municipality, explained that the platform is changing how people engage with the city. “We are receiving a high number of proposals and a growing number of participants,” she said. “Citizens are not only voting, they are actively promoting and developing ideas within their communities.”
Discussions also highlighted the role of civic tech in expanding what cities can achieve, where members of the public see a problem and have the skills to design a digital solution benefiting everyone.
Valery Buchinsky, a Sofia-based developer, demonstrated how open data and AI can be used to aggregate information on infrastructure works and disruptions, helping residents navigate the city more easily. His app ‘OboApp’ brings together fragmented public data, such as information on roadworks and service disruptions, into a single, user-friendly platform, turning complex datasets into practical, real-time information for citizens.
“People don’t need more data. They need usable information they can act on,” he explained. His solution builds entirely on existing public data, showing how reuse can deliver real benefits for citizens.
Building the data foundations: towards data spaces
Alongside these service-focused examples, cities also emphasised the importance of the data infrastructures that make such solutions possible. As municipalities develop more advanced digital tools, the need for reliable, accessible and well-governed data becomes increasingly critical.
Data is no longer just a by-product of city operations. It is a strategic asset that enables better planning, more informed decision-making, and more responsive services. Yet in many cities, data remains fragmented across departments and systems, limiting its potential.
To address this, cities are exploring data spaces, which are shared environments that allow data to be accessed, combined and used securely across organisations. These infrastructures are essential for unlocking the full potential of technologies such as AI and digital twins, and for enabling more integrated, city-wide approaches.
Ljubo Georgiev, Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning and Development for Sofia Municipality, made it clear that building these systems requires new approaches to governance, collaboration and trust.
“We are not just building digital tools, we are building systems that require trust, shared responsibility and new ways of working across institutions,” Georgiev stated.
Jordi Ortuno Ribé, Innovation Manager at the City of Barcelona and Co-Chair of the LDT Citiverse EDIC, placed this work in a broader European context, pointing to frameworks that help cities collaborate and scale their solutions across borders.
“We are talking about a platform able to make simulations and predict and know in advance what will happen,” he said, underlining how data spaces enable digital twins and more proactive decision-making.
There is a need for a unified data approach across a city that brings together data from different sources
Cities shared practical examples of how these approaches are being implemented.
In Riga and Bratislava, cities are strengthening data governance and developing digital twins to support urban planning and long-term decision-making.
As Arnis Gulbis, Director of Riga Digital Agency, explained, there is a need for a unified data approach across the city that brings together data from different sources. This understanding allows the municipality to move towards an integrated mobility data ecosystem, enabling the simulation of traffic flows for data-driven decisions about the city.
Bratislava is undergoing similar challenges, as transport data is scattered around different city departments. Zuzana Šefčík Aschenbrennerová, the city’s Digital Twin coordinator, showed that conversations between experts from different domains can create the basis for a municipal data governance approach and make data work for people.
Meanwhile, Ari Saine, Smart City Manager for the City of Oulu, highlighted the city’s focus on improving how data flows between public services and stakeholders, enabling more responsive and citizen-centred solutions.
Adding to the discussions, Timo Sillander, Technology Director, Forum Virium Helsinki, explained how a traffic flow data space is helping ensure that systems are interoperable and scalable, allowing solutions to be reused and adapted across cities.
Across these discussions, a clear message emerged: building data spaces is not a one-off project, but an ongoing process that requires coordination, common standards and continuous collaboration.
From tools to transformation
Taken together, the discussions highlighted a shared message: digital transformation is not just about technology. It is about how cities organise themselves, collaborate with others, and use data to deliver better outcomes for citizens.
From integrated service platforms in Porto to AI experimentation in Espoo, cities are demonstrating that innovation works best when it is practical, collaborative and people-centred.
As Sofia Yovcheva highlighted through the success of Sofia Decides: “Citizens are not only participating, they are actively shaping and promoting ideas within their communities.”
The conversations in Sofia showed that the future of urban digitalisation lies in connecting services, data and people, ensuring that digital solutions are not only innovative, but meaningful in the everyday lives of citizens.
____
The 2026 edition of the Eurocities Digital Forum: ‘Fostering a People Centred Digital Tomorrow,’ hosted by Sofia Municipality, took place on 15-17 April 2026. This annual event provides cities with the opportunity to share best practices, strengthen their advocacy towards the EU institutions, and explore innovative digital governance models.
Read our article on the Forum’s opening session: Building a common digital future for cities.
All the photos from the event can be found here.
